Breastfeeding and Weight Loss

So you’ve had your baby; you’re home from the hospital; the baby is nursing well. In a few weeks, you will look in a mirror and wonder if you will ever look the same as you did before you got pregnant. You might not, but here’s good news. If you are breastfeeding, that might be the best and easiest way for you to lose that weight. 

If you gained 35 pounds while you were pregnant, and lost the typical 12-14 pounds having the baby, that leaves you with about 21 pounds to lose. And if you are breastfeeding your baby, you know you can’t go on a drastic Slim-Fast or other type of diet to lose it fast. 

Did you know that nursing requires an additional 500 nutrient-dense calories a day? That’s a lot of calories that little one is using up. A mom who is breastfeeding her baby as often and for as long as baby wants often finds that she loses the weight by the time she looks up and draws breath again. That’s typically around 8-10 months, by the way. 

Some lucky moms even find that while they are breastfeeding their child, they can indulge in calorie-rich, not so nutrient-dense foods without gaining weight. Remember the woman in “Desperate Housewives” that worked with Felicity Huffman? How she cried when her 5 year old weaned because “now she’d have to go to the gym”? That was a bit of an exaggeration: by the time a breastfeeding child is five, he isn’t using up enough calories for a weight-loss benefit anymore. But during that first and sometimes even second year of breastfeeding, some moms find that feeding their child is as effective as an exercise routine when it comes to the scale.